Almond Shortbread

Ha, a reason to use the ground almonds. Mom wanted almond shortbread...well, almond cookies, but it turned into just wanting a butter-flour-sugar-ground almond thing. It didn't take all the ground almonds I made though, since 2/3 lb turned into almost 4 cups.

This recipe started from Joy of Cooking again, since the internet failed me. It's based on their Almond Crescents, which I stumbled across last year when looking up ground almond recipes, but last year I ended up going with Fanny Farmer's version. It calls for sifting things, and usually I'm not that big on sifting, since lumps come out if you beat it long enough, but since shortbread is delicate, I totally recommend it because it just makes everything easier.

Flaky, icing sugar dusted almondy goodness!

Almond Shortbread


makes 24 medium pieces, or however you want to cut it due to richness

1 c unsalted butter, softened
1 c icing sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 to 1 1/2 cups ground almonds
1/4 tsp cinnamon (more if you want, but then it just drowns out the almonds...)
2 1/2 cups flour, sifted

Preheat oven to 350 F. Get out a glass 9" x 13" pan.
In a large bowl (really large, cuz it's messy), cream butter and icing sugar.
Mix in vanilla and almond extract and ground almonds.
Sift first cup of flour and cinnamon on the mix and combine.
Sift and stir each remaining half cup of flour in separately.
Use your hands to lightly kneed out any dry spots if it's too hard to stir gently.
Pour into pan and lightly press out evenly.
Cook about 30 mins, or until not raw looking, brown on bottom and lightly brown on top.

Important!!! Score or cut while still warm with a sharp knife, or else it shatters instead of cutting cleanly (as I learned this time around since I wasn't following a shortbread recipe...)

If you are going to treat it like a shortbread, you technically need to leave it sit a week, but it's good right away once cool.

Enjoy!